Entries tagged "High-Speed Rail"

Indonesia plans to extend the tracks of the $6 billion Jakarta-Bandung rail project being built with China to ensure economic viability, but is facing a one year delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, Nikkei reports.

Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to postpone the finalization of a long-negotiated rail agreement that has experienced delays since the inauguration of Malaysia's new government in 2018, Nikkei reports.

China is turning to infrastructure projects to boost its economy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, including the construction a 400 km maglev railway between Shanghai and Ningbo, Nikkei reports.

In an effort to reduce traffic congestion, Jakarta recently opened service on the Indonesian capital's first light rail transit line, a key project in Indonesian President Joko Widodo's infrastructure modernization plans, which also include an intercity metro and China-funded high-speed railway between Jakarta and Bandung, Nikkei reports.

Thailand's prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Laos and China to accelerate the construction of a much delayed high-speed rail line between northeast Thailand and Vientiane in Laos, reports Nikkei.

Malaysia will cancel its $20B East Coast Rail Link project with contractor China Communications Construction Co Ltd due to the high cost, but stated that they will continue to welcome investment from China on a case by case basis.

With an eye toward illuminating current issues, this report draws from examples throughout history of how states use foreign infrastructure to advance strategic objectives. It shows how China is updating and exercising tactics used by Western powers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and how these issues, and the strategic implications they carry, are likely to intensify in the coming years.

Chinese investment in railways is expected to rise by about 6 percent year-over-year to $125 billion in 2019, part of a stimulus plan to shore up China’s lagging economy. China Railway, which manages the country’s rail-sector, expects to build 6,800km in new rail tracks this year, a 45 percent increase in construction over 2018.

Vietnam's government has re-introduced a previously rejected plan for a high-speed railway that would connect the country's north and south. Under the current proposal, the government would cover 80% of the project's cost, fueling concern that funding the railway would be irresponsible.

Beijing is currently working on construction of a high-speed rail line in northern Thailand. Under its planned 3,000-km pan-Asian railway network, Chinese rail lines will extend even further south, stretching through Malaysia and feeding into Singapore, reports the Nikkei Asian Review.

Thailand will spend more than $25 billion to build a high-speed rail network in a bid to transform the country into a regional rail hub. The Bang Sue Grand Station in Bangkok, when completed in 2020, is expected be Southeast Asia's biggest station with a capacity of serving 400,000 passengers daily.

Indonesia's vice presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno said on Tuesday that the government will review the Chinese-led construction of a high-speed rail line connecting Jakarta and the city of Bandung, if the opposition wins Indonesia's presidential election next year.

China Railway Construction will join a consortium led by Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) to bid for the construction of Thailand's $7 billion high-speed railway project that will link three major airports.

Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed an agreement with China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) to jointly develop "supersonic" trains in the country with a maximum speed of 620 mph.

A recently opened express railway between Hong Kong and mainland China has drastically cut travel times, but has experienced less demand in commuters and tourists as initially anticipated, reports the Nikkei Asian Review.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to launch India's first high-speed railway by August 2022. Faced with challenges in domestic procurement and land acquisition, project leaders are considering a partial opening to coincide with the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

Five years after the announcement of China's Belt and Road, the ambitious drive to build new infrastructure across Eurasia has produced a mixed track record on key issues such as its energy footprint, debt sustainability, and environmental impact.

Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is heading to China to renegotiate billion-dollar infrastructure projects signed by his predecessor, in an effort to reduce the nation's financial dependence on China.

The U.S.'s recently announced plan to invest $113 million in infrastructure throughout the Indo-Pacific region will have a limited impact and pales in comparison to China's multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, according to Dr. James Crabtree of the National University of Singapore.

The EU became wary of China's infrastructure investment in Central and Eastern European countries. Hungary was forced by the EU to conduct a public tender for the Hungarian segment of the Belgrade-Budapest High-Speed Railway, which would delay the project completion until 2023.

California-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies will help build a 10-km hyperloop in Guizhou Province, which has been targeted for heavy transportation investment due to its strategic location on the land route of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Thirty-one companies from Thailand and abroad have expressed interest in bidding for the right to build the country's first high-speed railway, valued at $7.07 billion. The 220km route will link three major airports and will be the first large infrastructure project to be built in the Eastern Economic Corridor.

Despite the recent cancellation of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail line, the Chinese-funded East Coast Rail Link connecting Malaysia's biggest port to the Thailand border will maintain its funding amid government cutbacks, according to Malaysia’s Finance Minister.

Malaysia's decision to cancel the high-speed rail from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore suggests that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's new government may reevaluate other costly Chinese-led projects to cut the country's debt, Nikkei reports.

Prime Minister Mahathir cancelled a proposed high-speed railway project that would have connected Kuala Lumpur with Singapore on Monday, citing the overall cost of the project as a primary concern. Mahathir's predecessor signed a legally-binding deal with his counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, in December 2016 as a symbol of closer bilateral cooperation which will now require negotiating a $125 million penalty for pulling out.

A consortium of European companies including the German Engineering company Siemens, France's Alstom, Austria's PORR, and Italian State Railways will team up with a Malaysian engineering company to bid for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail line. The consortium is expected to face rival bidders from both China and Japan.

Broad generalizations about “Belt and Road projects,” whether positive or negative, are not particularly helpful and could even be dangerous when formulating policy. A more successful approach is likely to involve nuanced and localized policies in the same way that China has adopted localized approaches to infrastructure investment under the BRI umbrella.

The land acquisition process has started for the 350-kilometer-long high-speed rail linking Kuala Lumpur with Singapore, paving the way for the bidding process to begin by the end of the year. The infrastructure project is expected to attract international bidders for the first cross-border high-speed rail line in Southeast Asia.

Earlier this month, the leaders of Japan and India paused to lay the foundation stone for a high-speed railway. The new link illustrates the high-stakes competition underway to connect the Eurasian supercontinent. China has stolen the spotlight, but other regional powers are not standing still.

"I really like China" a diplomat told us a few months ago, "they are the only ones around with a plan for the 21st century." That plan – China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) – has, however, raised ample concern, from Asia all the way to the Berlin and Washington.

Central Japan Railway's ability to complete the magnetic-levitation (maglev) railway project faces obstacles ranging from cutting a pathway deep under a daunting mountain range to acquiring land to build stations along the route.